By Scott Stewart The unraveling of the al Assad regime in Syria will produce many geopolitical consequences . One potential consequence has garnered a great deal of media attention in recent days: the possibility of the regime losing control of its chemical weapons stockpile. In an interview aired July 30 on CNN, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said it would be a "disaster to have those chemical weapons fall into the wrong hands — hands of Hezbollah or other extremists in that area." When he mentioned other extremists, Panetta was referring to local and transnational jihadists , such as members of the group Jabhat al-Nusra, which has been fighting with other opposition forces against the Syrian regime.